Hi there! I’m Cassandre, and in this article I’m excited to share our story of how we moved from Taiwan to Kyoto, Japan, and successfully settled here using a Business Manager Visa. I’ll also answer some of the most common questions we get, like: “How did you move to Japan? Why did you choose to live in Japan? Can you survive here without speaking Japanese?” and more.
Moving to Kyoto from scratch: how hard is it really?
First, a quick note: we’re not immigrants in the traditional sense—we’re more like long-stay residents. Even though moving abroad for a long stay feels quite different from immigrating permanently, living in Japan long-term is definitely not easy.
That’s because Japan isn’t what you’d call an “immigration country”. Whether you’re looking to immigrate or just stay long-term, there are quite a few restrictions—unlike some countries that offer retirement visas, investment immigration, or other simple ways to secure long-term residency.
If you want to legally stay in Japan for an extended time, you basically have a few main options:
- Study in Japan and get a Student Visa
- Marry a Japanese national and get a Spouse Visa
- Be hired by a Japanese company or transferred from your company abroad, and get a Work Visa
- Or, the less common route: apply for a Business Manager Visa
For us, we chose the Business Manager Visa route to move to Kyoto.
What is a Japan Business Manager Visa and how can foreigners apply?
Simply put, a Business Manager Visa is specifically for foreigners who want to set up and run a company within Japan.
Compared to other long-term visas, it’s definitely not the easiest option. If you’re young and still studying, a student visa is the simplest. If your employer offers you an overseas assignment, that’s straightforward too.
The Business Manager Visa, on the other hand, involves a series of rather complicated procedures and requires meeting certain financial requirements.
We were lucky enough to find an administrative scrivener (a licensed legal specialist) based in Tokyo who helped us handle the entire process smoothly.
Since this was our first time doing anything like this, we naturally had a million questions. Before signing any contract, we discussed every detail with our administrative scrivener over Line and video calls—things like visa conditions, process timelines, and more. They were so patient and explained everything step by step, which really helped ease our nerves.
They even assessed our chances of success upfront. If the risk seemed too high, they would have declined to take our case—because if an application fails, they only charge half the service fee. Even so, from our first conversation all the way to finally settling in Kyoto, we were constantly on edge the whole time.
Our General Process for Applying for a Business Manager Visa
Here’s a simple breakdown of how we applied for a Business Manager Visa in Japan, for anyone curious about what the steps look like:
- Signing the contract: We officially signed the contract in mid-November 2021. At this stage, we had to decide which city we’d open our company in, the company name, business scope, and more. We spent quite a bit of time discussing all these details with our administrative scrivener.
- Preparing the capital: After signing, we wired ¥5,000,000 (about USD 32,000) into the scrivener’s account. This ¥5,000,000 is the minimum capital required for foreigners to open a company in Japan. (Technically, you can start a company with zero capital, but then you must hire at least two Japanese employees—so most people stick with the minimum.) Once the visa is approved, the remaining funds, minus necessary fees (company registration costs, office rent, setup costs, and the scrivener’s service fee), will be returned to you. We didn’t want to deal with the hassle or fees of wiring money back to Taiwan, so we just left the balance with our scrivener until we arrived and opened our Japan Post Bank account—then they transferred the rest to us.
- Renting an office: To open a company in Japan, you must have a physical office space first. So right after signing, you need to rent an office. (That means you’ll start paying rent from day one—even while waiting for your visa to be approved, so budget for a few months of rent in advance.) Our scrivener connected us with a local real estate agent who helped us find a suitable office.
- Preparing documents:
- Send a company seal and registration certificate to Japan: This was a little nerve-wracking to mail, but it’s necessary. You can have a new seal made to avoid overlap with any existing bank or official seals.
- Marriage certificate: Since we applied as a couple, we needed to prove our relationship.
- Bank statement: This shows that the ¥5,000,000 is genuinely yours and has been in your account for at least six months. This helps avoid suspicion that you borrowed the money temporarily. If it’s seen as borrowed funds, you’ll need extra proof—who you borrowed from, your relationship, why they lent you the money, etc. It’s a big hassle, so better to avoid this altogether.
- ID photos: Required for the visa application.
- Company registration: Once you’ve completed the above, you can officially submit your application for the Business Manager Visa.
- Business plan: You also need to submit a business plan for your company. Our scrivener helped us draft this and translate it into Japanese.
When you open a company in Japan under a Business Manager Visa, having a separate office is mandatory. Your office and home must be distinct. Technically, you can combine them under specific conditions, but only if you live in a standalone house (not an apartment) that meets certain structural requirements—like having a separate, dedicated office space immediately accessible from the entrance. These houses tend to be more expensive to rent. So if your visa hasn’t been approved yet and you haven’t entered Japan, it’s best to rent a small space just for the office (like a temporary setup). You can always move later if needed. Also, keep in mind that many properties in Japan simply won’t rent to foreigners, so finding an office (or a place to live) isn’t always as easy as you might think.
Registering a company in Japan is actually pretty straightforward—the paperwork and timeline are fairly quick. The real challenge is whether your Business Manager Visa will pass the strict screening. This decision rests with Japan’s Immigration Bureau. We’d heard of people waiting six or seven months with no guarantee of success—sometimes they’d have to fix and resubmit documents multiple times before finally getting approved.
So once we sent in our application, we were on edge every single day, constantly tempted to contact our scrivener for updates. But in reality, once it’s submitted, everything moves through the Japanese government offices and immigration officers—our scrivener couldn’t see any status updates either. Surprisingly, though, the anxious waiting period turned out to be much shorter than we expected.
Amazingly, Our Business Manager Visa Was Approved in Just One Month
It honestly felt like a stroke of good luck. About one month after we submitted our application, our scrivener contacted us with the news that our visa had been approved! Even they were amazed at how smoothly it went. We’d been worrying the whole time—what if it got rejected? Were we too old to get approved for opening a company in Japan at this age? Would we get scammed after wiring such a large sum of money to a complete stranger? Thankfully, our scrivener turned out to be extremely professional, detail-oriented, and trustworthy, so the entire process went off without a hitch.
A little tip we heard: if you apply for a Business Manager Visa to open a company in Tokyo, the process can take much longer because there are so many applications to handle. Kyoto tends to have fewer applicants, so approvals there often move more quickly.
Originally, We Didn’t Plan to Move to Japan
Here’s a funny little twist to our story: Our first pick for a long-term stay abroad was actually Bangkok, Thailand.
We absolutely love Thailand.
The weather can be uncomfortably hot, but Thai people are so warm and optimistic, and Bangkok’s energy and atmosphere really drew us in.
Plus, Thailand offers a special retirement visa—if you’re 50 or older, you can legally stay long-term. Sounds perfect, right?
So for a few years, we visited Bangkok regularly to travel and research our options. I even took Thai language classes for half a year! We were genuinely preparing for it.
But since we weren’t old enough to meet the age requirement yet, we just had to keep waiting...then the pandemic hit..., and all our plans came to a halt.
Related reading: Check out our Bangkok stories here: Next stop Bangkok
And Then, We Almost Moved to Portugal
While waiting for the Thai visa, we stumbled across something interesting—Portugal has a D7 Passive Income Visa.
This D7 Visa doesn’t have any age requirement, the application threshold is low, and you don’t need to invest a huge amount of money. We’d always been curious about Europe anyway. We’d heard that Lisbon has pleasant weather and incredible pastries (and since our channel is all about baking!), so after going back and forth for a while, we found a young Taiwanese woman working at a law office in Lisbon, got in touch, and got the details for how to apply. We pretty much decided then and there that we’d “make the switch to Lisbon.” I even started learning Portuguese to get ready for European life.
But at that time, the pandemic was still raging, so all Portuguese visa applications were frozen—and once again, we just had to wait.
Why Did We End Up Moving to Japan?
While we were waiting and waiting, we randomly came across a video by a Japanese administrative scrivener on YouTube. In the video, they mentioned that even YouTubers can move to Japan by starting a business.
Wait a minute... we’re YouTubers too, aren’t we?! (That was our lightbulb moment.)
Could that really work? Was it actually possible?
At first, we asked about it with a “This sounds too good to be true” mindset. But once the scrivener looked at our channel and background, they said, “You’re a perfect fit! Your chances are really high!”
Hearing that instantly fired us up with confidence! We’d honestly never thought about living in Japan before, but since Japan is so close to Taiwan and the culture is relatively familiar, it made a lot more sense than moving halfway around the world to Europe. Plus, being Asian, it’s easy to blend in here.
So we thought, “Alright, why not just give it a shot?” And to our surprise, it actually worked! The process moved so fast that we didn’t even have time to learn any Japanese beforehand.
In the end, we studied Thai but didn’t move to Bangkok. We studied Portuguese but didn’t move to Lisbon. We never studied Japanese—and yet here we are in Kyoto!
Our whole language prep was totally off track: Thai and Portuguese in the bag, but not a word of Japanese before starting this new chapter.
Japan Has So Many Cities—Why Kyoto?
To be honest, choosing Kyoto wasn’t some deeply thought-out decision.
We’re not huge fans of traveling around Japan. I’d only ever been to Tokyo once, about twenty years ago on a short trip with my sister. A few years back, we got some free flights to major Asian cities thanks to credit card reward points, so my husband and I went to Kyoto twice. Both trips were pretty short, and on the second visit, we also stayed a couple of days in Osaka—so we really didn’t have strong impressions of Japanese cities.
But those two brief visits left us feeling that Kyoto’s pace of life was just right—very walkable, pleasant, and full of everyday charm. So when our scrivener asked us which city we’d like to register our company in, we immediately chose Kyoto (mainly because we didn’t really have other options in mind, honestly).
More from our Kyoto life: A quick trip up Mount Hiei, Cherry Blossoms in Omihachiman, Wow, Japan really does have a lot of public holidays!
Landing in Kyoto Without Speaking a Word
We actually didn’t even start learning the Japanese syllabary (hiragana and katakana) until after our visa was approved—back then, we still weren’t sure if the application would work out. I remember we were still studying Portuguese at the time, too (haha)!
Originally, when we arrived, we planned to handle our resident registration on our own, since you have to register within 14 days of landing in Japan.
We were worried about how we’d communicate with the local government staff without speaking Japanese.
Still, we told ourselves: “Hand gestures, Google Translate, and a thick skin—there’s nothing we can’t figure out eventually, right? If we fail once, we’ll just try again and again. We’ve got 14 days!”
Turns out, all that mental prep was totally unnecessary!
Our amazing administrative scrivener had already connected us with a Chinese-speaking real estate agent before we landed—this agent was truly our lifesaver in Kyoto!
On our second morning, just as we were gearing up to tackle the city hall on our own, the agent suddenly messaged us on Line, offering to drive us there and help out. What a relief!
After the resident registration, he even drove us to the Immigration Bureau to update the address on our residence cards and change the printed English name to our kanji names. He also helped fix my work permit status, because when we first arrived, my residence card was incorrectly marked as “not permitted to work.” If not for him, it probably would’ve taken us ages to catch that mistake :)
Your residence card is printed and handed to you right after you go through immigration at the airport. Although the officers do ask you to check it, it’s easy to miss mistakes if you’re nervous, unfamiliar with the process, and don’t understand the language. So be sure to double-check everything and make any corrections when you handle your resident registration.
Over the next few days, our agent took us to get our phone numbers sorted, open a Japan Post Bank account, and once that was done, he helped us find our current apartment—quickly and smoothly! He even handled setting up our Wi-Fi, utilities, and gas. From stepping off the plane to sorting out all the basic necessities, we were done in less than two weeks. We’d originally booked a hotel for a month after landing, but things went so well that we checked out a week early. Honestly, our main job during this entire process was just tagging along with our agent, smiling and signing paperwork—he took care of everything else.
Can You Really Live in Japan Without Speaking the Language?
When it comes to daily life in Kyoto, living here without speaking Japanese is actually pretty manageable. It’s not like there are zero obstacles, but with tools like Google Translate and a bit of gesturing, you can get by just fine. You’ll often hear people online say that if you don’t speak Japanese, you’ll get dirty looks—but in Kyoto, we haven’t really experienced that at all. Everyone we’ve met, from shop staff to government workers, has been friendly and patient. Sometimes they hear our awkward accent and just switch to English for us—yes, plenty of young student staff in Japan speak surprisingly fluent English!
Plus, we honestly don’t need to use Japanese all that often in daily life.
For example, when grocery shopping, most local supermarkets in Kyoto have self-checkout. You just scan your items and pay—no deep conversation required.
The same goes for ordering food. Many restaurants have electronic menus now, so you just tap the screen to order. Apart from paying the bill, you hardly need to talk. Even when you do have to interact, you may not understand at first, but after a few tries, you pretty much get the hang of it (the phrases are all very similar anyway).
Of course, this also means our Japanese skills have improved very slowly (we’ve admittedly been lazy about studying ;p). Ordering food is probably the area where we’ve learned the most Japanese since moving here.
That said, this only applies to daily life. Work is a whole different story!
We mainly work as YouTubers, which means we do almost everything at home and rarely interact with Japanese coworkers—so our Japanese ability doesn’t matter much.
But if you want to work in a Japanese office environment, it’s basically impossible without solid language skills.
Maybe once our Japanese gets better, we’ll look into collaborating with Japanese companies. But for now, we’ll just keep learning bit by bit.
Why Did We Choose to Live Abroad?
When you’re middle-aged, the hardest part about moving abroad is the baggage you carry—otherwise, relocating at this stage of life should actually be the easiest.
By this age, you’re usually more mature, and your finances are more stable. But the longer you stay in your comfort zone, the scarier it gets to do anything outside of it.
It feels like every decision comes with a price, unlike when you’re young and can just pack up and study overseas without a second thought.
Sometimes, though, you really just need that burst of courage and impulse. Sure, you might fail—but failing is still better than not trying at all.
As you reach middle age, the years when you’re physically free to move around are limited. So we figured, if there’s something we want to do and can do, we’d better do it while we can—without letting the fear of failure weigh us down.
That pretty much sums up why we decided to live abroad.
Every expat has their own reasons for moving overseas.
Some people are running away from something.
Some people are chasing bigger dreams.
For us, it’s more about exploration—because the more you reach out and explore the world, the more you end up exploring yourself.
Even though we mentioned before that this move happened almost without any planning, the truth is that the idea of doing a long stay abroad had been brewing in us for a long time. To be honest, we were living very comfortably in Taipei. We’d built a strong, cozy comfort zone over decades, piece by piece. But over time, we realized our passion for things was fading, and it became too easy to take everything for granted. So we asked ourselves: what if we tried living in a completely unfamiliar country? Sure, it’s scary and challenging, full of risk and adventure—but it makes you feel truly alive. It might sound a bit abstract, but the feeling behind it is pretty simple.
And that’s our story! We also made a FAQ video answering more questions about moving to Kyoto—feel free to check it out if you’re curious. We’ll keep sharing bits and pieces of our everyday life in Kyoto here as we go. So stick around for more updates on living in Kyoto and helpful tips for moving abroad! Our FAQ video is in Mandarin Chinese, but don’t worry—it comes with English subtitles.